The new Netflix series is all about true crime, but is it actually based on a real story?
Netflix is known as the streamer to go to for true crime content, and turning the essence of the genre on its head is new seven-part thriller, Bodkin.
Bodkin follows three podcasters who travel to a small town in Ireland to investigate the mysterious goings-on in Bodkin, where multiple residents have gone missing over the years.
While the titular town of the series may be small, it’s also hiding some pretty major secrets – as they come to find out the more time they spend with the locals.
As per the synopsis: “As our heroes try to discern fact from fiction — about the case, about their colleagues, and, most painfully, themselves — the series challenges our perception of truth and exposes the stories we tell ourselves to justify our beliefs or validate our fears.”
But is the new drama based on a real story? Read on to find out.
Is Bodkin based on a true story?
While the series is centred around a true crime podcast, Bodkin is not based on a true story.
The series poster boasts that the thriller is based on a true story, but has a footnote to say it’s been “overheard in a pub”. Actually, it’s all been imagined in an age of true crime obsession, podcasts and the morality behind storytelling.
Bodkin has been created and written by British writer Jez Scharf, who describes the series as “a commentary on stories of violence”, according to Tudum.
“At the time, I was thinking a lot about the morality of true crime,” says Scharf. “They’re often very tragic stories, but are parcelled up into neat episodes with a good hook at the end.”
Scharf serves as co-showrunner alongside fellow executive producer Alex Metcalf, who simply says of Bodkin: “Not a real story, not a real place.
“It’s a fake town, it’s a fake place. It’s all fake people. The mystery itself, we worked very hard to find something that is in no way adjacent to a real true crime story. The fictionality of it was very deliberate.”
Speaking about the tone of Bodkin, Scharf said: “My personal interest as a writer is always in absurdity, really — in the idea that life is broadly absurd.
“Things that are sad are often funny, and vice versa. I think, having spent a lot of time in Ireland, there’s a certain acceptance of that kind of tone [there].”
Metcalf also spoke of the series inspiration from some of the best known true crime podcasts like Serial and S-Town.
Known for being one of the first true crime podcasts ever, Serial is often cited as one of the best-known. While it is currently in its fourth season, it was its first – released in 2014 and centring on the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee – that really cemented it as one of the most influential podcasts, going on to inspire countless true crime iterations the world over.
As we see in Bodkin, Gilbert, Dove and Emmy are three unlikely people coming together to do a podcast centred on this small town and are regularly pulling out their dictaphones and microphones to capture content.
Describing Bodkin as “a post-Serial story”, Metcalf said of Bodkin’s podcast inspiration: “Actually, of all the true crime podcasts, the one that was most inspiring to us was S-Town.
“That’s one where you come in thinking it’s going to be about a murder, but then the story just spins out in ways that you don’t expect. That was the kind of journey that we were trying to map ourselves against — that the truth is always kind of unexpected.”
Bodkin is now available to stream on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.